The Structure of Modern English - Laurel J. Brinton

The Structure of Modern English



The Structure of Modern English

A linguistic introduction

Laurel J. Brinton

University of British Columbia

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Amsterdam / Philadelphia

8TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brinton, Laurel J.

The structure of modern English : a linguistic introduction / Laurel J. Brinton.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

1. English language--Grammar. 2. English language--Phonology. 3. English language--

Syntax. I. Title.

PE1106.B75 2000

425--dc21 00-023618

ISBN 90 272 2567 2 (Eur.) / 1 55619 662 8 (US) (Hb; alk. paper)

© 2000 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.

John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O.Box 36224 · 1020 ME Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O.Box 27519 · Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 · USA

To Ralph and Monica



Table of Contents

List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
A note to the student on punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx

Unit 1
The Study of English

Chapter 1
The Nature of Language and Linguistics
The Nature of Human Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Fundamental Beliefs about Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Linguistic Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Rule-Governed Nature of Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Language Universals, Innateness, and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Animal Communication Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Nature of Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Definition of Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Fallacies concerning Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Linguistics and the Components of Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Organization of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Unit 2
The Speech Sounds of English

Chapter 2
English Consonants and Vowels
The Spoken versus the Written Form of Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

English Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Advantages of Speech and Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Production of Speech Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

viii Table of Contents

Consonant Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Classification of Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Consonants of English and their Phonetic Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Vowel Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Classification of Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Vowels of English and their Phonetic Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Consonant versus Vowel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Chapter 3
English Phonology, Phonotactics, and Suprasegmentals
Phonemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Phonemic Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Phonological Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Phonotactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Suprasegmental Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Intonation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Syllable Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Unit 3
The Structure and Meaning of English Words

Chapter 4
The Internal Structure of Words and Processes of Word Formation in English
Defining the Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Morphemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Morpheme versus Morph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Morphemic Analysis versus Morphological Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Allomorphs and Morphemic Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Processes of Word Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Derivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Reduplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Conversion or Functional Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Blends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Back Formations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Shortening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Root Creations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Idioms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Table of Contents ix

Chapter 5
Grammatical Categories and Word Classes
Grammatical Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Definiteness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Deixis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Aspect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Determining Word Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Inflectional and Distributional Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Tests Applied to Various Word Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Recategorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Chapter 6
Lexical Semantics
Traditional Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Basic Semantic Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Structural Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Semantic Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Feature Analysis of Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Feature Analysis of Verbal Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Feature Analysis of Modals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Strengths and Weaknesses of Semantic Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Semantic Anomaly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Selectional Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Figurative Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Unit 4
The Structure of English Sentences

Chapter 7
Phrasal Structure and Verb Complementation
Introduction to Phrase Structure Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
The Form of Phrase Structure Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Constituents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

x Table of Contents

A Phrase Structure Grammar of English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Subject and Predicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Noun Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Adjective Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Adverb Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Prepositional Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Conjunction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Verb Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Review of Phrase Structure Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Chapter 8
Adverbials, Auxiliaries, and Sentence Types
Adverbials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Adjunct Adverbials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Disjunct Adverbials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Conjunct Adverbials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Functions of Postverbal Prepositional Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Auxiliary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Passive Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Verb Subcategorization and the Passive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Yes/No Questions and Negative Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Yes/No Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Negative Statements and Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Do-Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Tag Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Imperatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Review of Phrase Structure Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Chapter 9
Finite and Nonfinite Clauses
Finite Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

That-Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Adverbial Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Wh-Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Nonfinite Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Forms of Nonfinite Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Omissions from Nonfinite Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Complementizers in Nonfinite Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Functions of Nonfinite Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Nonfinite Clauses as Complements of V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Review of Complex Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Table of Contents xi

Unit 5
The Meaning of English Sentences and their Communicative Functions

Chapter 10
Sentence Semantics
Propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Thematic Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

The Expression of Thematic Roles in English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Dual Thematic Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Thematic Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Predications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Descriptive Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Cognitive Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Locative and Possessive Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Chapter 11
Information Structuring and Speech Acts
Pragmatics and Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Basic Distinctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Syntactic Options and Pragmatic Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Information Structuring in a Passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Speech Act Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Components of Speech Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Taxonomy of Speech Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Appropriateness Conditions on Speech Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Indirect Speech Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
The Cooperative Principle and Conversational Implicature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327



List of Tables

Table 2.1: The Consonants of English 27
Table 2.2: The Vowels of English 37
Table 2.3: The Tense and Lax Vowels of English 42
Table 2.4: Consonant versus Vowel 43
Table 3.1: Initial Consonant Clusters in English 57
Table 3.2: Strong and Weak Forms 60
Table 4.1: The Productive Inflections of Modern English 79
Table 4.2: Enclitics in English 80
Table 4.3: Regular Plural Formation in Nouns 83
Table 4.4: Root Allomorphy 86
Table 4.5: Semantic Classes of Prefixes in English 87
Table 4.6: Derivational SuYxes in English 88
Table 4.7: Syntactic Patterns in English Compounds 95
Table 5.1: The Nineteen Parts of Speech of English (C. C. Fries 1952) 119
Table 6.1: Componential Analysis of a Livestock Paradigm 140
Table 6.2: Componential Analysis of (a) Types of Garments and (b) Bodies of Water 141
Table 6.3: Feature Analyses of Sample Nouns 142
Table 6.4: Typology of Situation Types 144
Table 6.5: Epistemic and Deontic Meanings of the Modal Auxiliaries 149
Table 6.6: Core and Peripheral Members of the Category “Vehicle” 152
Table 6.7: Examples of Selectional Restrictions 154
Table 7.1: Expansions of NP 170
Table 7.2: Expansions of AP 172
Table 7.3: Expansion of (a) AdvP and (b) PP 176
Table 7.4: Conjunction 180
Table 7.5: Expansions of VP 186
Table 8.1: Specifiers of the Verb (Active) 199
Table 8.2: Specifiers of the Verb (Passive) 201
Table 9.1: That-Clauses 216
Table 9.2: Adjunct Adverbial Clauses 222
Table 9.3: Forms of the Interrogative Wh-Complementizer 226
Table 9.4: Relative Clauses 230
Table 9.5: Indirect Questions 236

xiv List of Tables

Table 9.6: Controlled and Indefinite PRO in Nonfinite Clauses 242
Table 9.7: Persuade-, expect-, and want-type Verbs in English 255
Table 10.1: Ø-, 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-Place Predicates 265
Table 10.2: The Syntactic Expression of Thematic Roles in English 269
Table 10.3: Thematic Grids for English Verbs 275
Table 10.4: Stative, Inchoative, and Causative/Agentive Forms 281
Table 11.1: Focusing Operations in English 299
Table 11.2: Types of Speech Acts and their Appropriateness Conditions 308
Table 11.3: Sentences Conventionally Used in the Performance of Indirect Directives 311

List of Figures

Figure 1.1: Organization of the Text 12

Figure 2.1: The Vocal Tract with (a) Velum Raised and (b) Velum Lowered 21

Figure 2.2: Configurations of the Larynx: (a) Voiceless (Exhalation), (b) Voiced, and

(c) Whispered 22

Figure 2.3: Some Places of Articulation 25

Figure 2.4: The Diphthongs of English (Approximate Starting and Ending Points) 40

Figure 4.1: Types of Morphemes 76

Figure 4.2: Types of Morphs 77

Figure 6.1: A Hierarchy of Fish Hyponyms 135



Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge Distance Education and Technology of the University of British
Columbia for permission to use materials which I originally prepared for a distance education
course as the basis of this text and accompanying workbook.

I am grateful to my colleagues, Lilita Rodman and Leslie Arnovick of the University of
British Columbia, and to Barbara Dancygier and Lynne McGivern, who tested parts of the
text and workbook in their classrooms, to my research assistant, Patte Rockett, who assisted
me at various stages in the production of the manuscript, and to my students, who oVered
critiques and corrections of the material.

Alan Doree of the University of British Columbia did the painstaking work of preparing
the numerous tree diagrams; I am appreciative of the diligence and care he took with them.
I am also very grateful to my husband, Ralph Brands, who produced some of the figures in the
text and whose computer expertise saved me hours of frustration.

Finally, I would like to thank Kees Vaes of John Benjamins, who was the type of editor
that every author hopes to have.



Preface

The following text gives a full introduction to English sounds, grammar, and vocabulary. It
begins with a study of the distinctive sounds of English (phonology). It turns next to an
analysis of the structure of English words and their classification (morphology) as well as the
classification of English words and their grammatical modification. This is followed by an
exploration of the meaning of English words (lexical semantics). The next section is taken up
with a detailed analysis of English sentence structure (syntax) from a generative perspective.
The text then looks at the interaction of syntax and semantics (sentence semantics) and
considers the functions and contexts of language use (pragmatics). A chapter outlining the
importance of a knowledge of the structure of English for teaching and learning (pedagogy)
is also included on the accompanying CD-ROM.

This textbook is addressed to advanced undergraduate (and graduate) students
interested in contemporary English, including those whose primary area of interest is English
as a second language, primary or secondary-school English education, English literature,
theoretical and applied linguistics, or speech pathology. For this reason, this textbook, unlike
many other introductory linguistics textbooks, emphasizes the empirical facts of English
rather than any particular theory of linguistics. Furthermore, the text does not assume any
background in language or linguistics. Students are required to learn the International
Phonetic Alphabet as well as the technical vocabulary of grammar and linguistics, but all
necessary terms and concepts are presented in the text.

Upon completion of this textbook and accompanying workbook, students will have
acquired the following:

1. a knowledge of the sound system of contemporary English;
2. an understanding of the formation of English words and of their grammatical modification;
3. a comprehension of the structure of both simple and complex sentences in English;
4. a recognition of complexities in the expression of meaning, on both the word and

sentence level; and
5. an understanding of the eVects of context and function of use upon the structure of the

language.

The textbook is divided into eleven chapters. Chapter 1 briefly examines the discipline of
linguistics and the nature of human language and grammar. After a consideration of the
means of production of human speech sounds, Chapter 2 studies the consonant and vowel

xx Preface

sounds of English and methods of their phonetic transcription. Chapter 3 continues
discussion of the English sound system, considering sound combinations, stress, intonation,
and syllable structure; it also examines phonological rules in English and the concept of the
phoneme (distinctive sound of a language). Chapter 4 explores the internal structure of words,
the concept of the morpheme (meaningful unit of a language), and the varied processes of
word formation in English. Chapter 5 begins by defining the grammatical categories and
looking at the grammatical modification of English words and ends with a study of the means
of word classification in the language. Chapter 6 surveys a number of traditional and
structural approaches to word meaning and includes a discussion of figurative language.
Chapter 7 treats the syntax of the simple sentence, looking at the internal structure of the
noun, adjective, adverb, and prepositional phrase, complement structures in the verb phrase,
verb types, and grammatical functions. Chapter 8 continues to treat the syntax of the simple
sentence, including adverbial modifiers and verb premodifiers, and then examines the
structure of passive, interrogative, negative, and imperative sentences. The syntax of the
complex sentence is dealt with in Chapter 9, including that-clauses, wh-clauses (wh-questions,
relative clauses, and indirect clauses), and nonfinite clauses (infinitival and participial clauses).
Chapter 10 turns to the question of sentence meaning, understood in terms of thematic roles
and predication analysis. Chapter 11 looks at two quite diVerent approaches to the question
of the function of language in context: information structuring and speech act theory.

A CD-ROM accompanies this textbook. It includes:

1. a complete workbook with self-testing exercises; and
2. a chapter on pedagogical applications of the material presented in the textbook.

Answers for all of the self-testing exercises are provided. At relevant points in each chapter in
the text, students are directed to complete specific exercises and are advised to do so before
continuing with the chapter. The exercises should provide a check on students’ understanding
and progress. The additional chapter discusses the changing role of linguistics in the teaching
of English, reviewing arguments both in favor and opposed to explicit grammatical instruc-
tion for native and nonnative speakers and considering the importance of grammatical
knowledge for both the teacher and the learner.

At the end of each chapter, students are also directed to readings that provide more
detailed or enriched content on certain topics or supplemental help in understanding the
content of the chapter.

A note to the student on punctuation

Various punctuation conventions are used in this textbook with which you may not be familiar.
It is the practice to distinguish between words (or parts of words) which are “mentioned”

rather than used. Using words is what we do whenever we speak, but mentioning words is
what we do when we refer to words as words or to the forms of words, rather than evoking
their meanings. For example, try reading the following sentences:

The word paper has five letters. Court has several diVerent meanings. The feminine
suYx -rix is almost obsolete. The clause whatever you do is an indefinite relative clause.

Preface xxi

You may have had some diYculty reading these sentences. The reason for your diYculties
is that these sentences contain word forms which are mentioned rather than used. The
convention in printed texts is to italicize these mentioned forms, as follows:

The word paper has five letters. Court has several diVerent meanings. The feminine
suYx -rix is almost obsolete. The clause whatever you do is an indefinite relative clause.

Note the this convention makes these sentences much easier to read. (In handwriting,
mentioned forms are underlined.) This use of italics diVers from the use of quotation marks
to repeat the exact words of a spoken or written text, e.g., “convention” occurs two times in
the previous paragraph.

Italics denote all linguistic forms which are used as examples within a sentence. However, it
is not the practice to italicize examples which are set oV from the sentence, as in the following:

Below are two structurally ambiguous sentences:
Visiting relatives can be tiresome.
Flying planes can be dangerous.

When the actual sound of the word is being referred to, the International Phonetic Alphabet
is used. To distinguish such representations from regular writing, they are enclosed in square
brackets (or slashes), e.g.:

The word read is pronounced [r7d] or [rid].

Single quotation marks are used to give the meaning or gloss for a word; e.g., the word
garrulous means ‘tiresomely talkative’.

Another convention in linguistic works is the use of capitals to denote all the forms of a
single word, thus WORK stands for works, work, working, worked. Capitals are also used for
phonological and semantic features. These usages will be explained in more detail within the
text.



Unit 1
The Study of English



Chapter 1

The Nature of Language and Linguistics

Chapter Preview

The chapter begins by looking at the nature of human language, starting from certain funda-
mental beliefs we share concerning the naturalness, power, and function of language and
moving towards a more scientific analysis of human language as a system of arbitrary vocal
signs, having the qualities of universality, innateness, and creativity. Particular attention is
given to the rule-governed nature of language. Language is also seen as uniquely human. The
ambiguous term grammar is then defined and a number of fallacies concerning grammar are
disputed, for example, that one type of grammar is simpler than another, or that changes in
grammar involve deterioration in a language. Finally, the discipline of linguistics is examined,
with its division in five components, corresponding to the levels of language: phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

Commentary

The Nature of Human Language

Linguists understand language as a system of arbitrary vocal signs. Language is rule-governed,
creative, universal, innate, and learned, all at the same time. It is also distinctly human. We
will look at what is meant by each of these terms in some detail, but before doing so, let’s
briefly examine some preconceptions about language that a lay person might bring to the
study of language.

Fundamental Beliefs about Language
As speakers of language, we all have certain deep-seated notions concerning the nature of
language. Like all such fundamental beliefs, these are often wrong, though they contain a
germ of truth. For example, as literate beings, we tend to equate language with writing. But
there are significant differences, not only between oral sounds and written symbols, but also
between spoken and written syntax or vocabulary. More importantly, we assume that there is
some necessary, inevitable, or motivated connection between a word and the thing it names.
This assumption lies behind the belief that names tell us something about the bearer of that
name (for example, when one utters a statement such as “She doesn’t look like a Penelope!”)

4 The Structure of Modern English

or that a change in status must entail a change in name (for example, the custom — now
changing, of course — for a woman to adopt her husband’s surname upon marriage). It also
lies behind the thought, which we may all probably be guilty of having at times, that a foreign
language is somehow perverse and idiotic, while our own language is natural and sensible.

Because we believe that there is an inevitable connection between a word and the thing
it represents, the word is very powerful: names are extremely important (as we see in the Old
Testament Genesis) and the possession of language can be very dangerous (as we see in the
Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel). We avoid naming certain taboo objects explicitly
because doing so might invoke the object named; in addition, we may avoid directly naming
things which we fear or stand in awe of, such as God, our parents, or dangerous animals, and
things which are unpleasant or unclean, such as birth, death, bodily parts and functions, or
disease. Instead, we substitute euphemisms. Even if we recognize that names do not, in fact,
invoke the objects they name, there is a sense in which language has the eVect of action. That
is, by means of language alone we can perform an action, as for example when you say, “I
nominate Alex”. We will examine this phenomenon in Chapter 11.

Finally, we generally think of language as functioning to give expression to our thoughts
(“language as a vehicle for thought”), to transmit information (the “communicative
function”), or perhaps to provide the raw material for works of literature (the “narrative
function”). But language has many more functions, for example, to get others to do things,
to express emotions or feelings, to maintain social intercourse (as in greetings or talk about
the weather — the “phatic” function), to make promises, to ask questions, to bring about
states of aVairs, to talk to oneself, and even to talk about language itself, what is known as
metalanguage ‘language turned back on itself ’, which is common in everyday life, not just
among linguists. The idea that language simply expresses thought is a result of the philosophi-
cal and logical tradition, which treats language as a collection of propositions consisting of
referent(s) and a predication which have truth-value (are true or false). However, in normal
language use, speakers are not always committing themselves to the truth of a proposition; in
fact, they do so only in the case of assertions or statements. Likewise, the idea that language
has a communicative function, that it conveys new information, derives from its use in fairly
restricted contexts, such as in the classroom or the newspaper, or when gossiping. In fact, the
most important and frequent function of language is probably its phatic function.

Linguistic Signs

In the view of linguists, human language consists of signs, which are defined as things that
stand for or represent something else. Linguistic signs involve sequences of sounds which
represent concrete objects and events as well as abstractions. Signs may be related to the
things they represent in a number of ways. The philosopher C. S. Peirce recognized three types
of signs:

a. iconic, which resemble the things they represent (as do, for example, photographs,
diagrams, star charts, or chemical models);

b. indexical, which point to or have a necessary connection with the things they represent
(as do, for example, smoke to fire, a weathercock to the direction of the wind, a symptom
to an illness, a smile to happiness, or a frown to anger); and

The Nature of Language and Linguistics 5

c. symbolic, which are only conventionally related to the thing they represent (as do, for
example, a flag to a nation, a rose to love, a wedding ring to marriage).

It turns out that there is very little in language which is iconic. Onomatopoeic words, which
resemble the natural sounds they represent, are a likely candidate. However, while “bow-
wow” might represent the sound of a dog in English, for example, other languages represent
the sound quite diVerently (for example, “guau” in Spanish or “amh-amh” in Irish). So even
such words seems to be highly conventionalized. Certain aspects of word order are indeed
iconic. In the following sentences, we would normally assume that the words, phrases, or
clauses represents the temporal and causal order in which the events took place:

Susie went to New York, Montreal, and Toronto.
Sybil became ill and left the party.
She ate dinner, read the newspaper, and watched TV.

For example, in the second sentence, we assume that Sybil became ill before she left the party
and/or she left the party because she became ill. Note the very diVerent interpretation we give
to Sybil left the party and became ill. Or in the sentence If you do well on this exam, you will get
a good grade in the course, we know that the condition precedes the consequence, both in the
sentence and in real life. Iteration can also sometimes be iconic, as in The car repairs became
more and more expensive, where the repetition of more has an intensifying eVect.

A few aspects of language are indexical, such as the demonstrative pronouns this or that,
which point to the things they represent as close to or far away from the speaker, or adverbs
such as now and then, which denotes the moment of speaking or after (or before) the moment
of speaking, respectively.

Most language, however, is symbolic. Ferdinand de Saussure — a Swiss scholar whose
work is often said to have been the beginning of modern linguistics — stated that the relation
between the linguistic sign and what it signifies is conventional or arbitrary. By an arbitrary
connection, he meant that the sequence of sounds constituting a word bears no natural,
necessary, logical, or inevitable connection to the thing in the real world which it names.
Speakers must agree that it names that thing. Since there is no motivation for the connection,
speakers must simply learn it. Speakers of English, for example, have entered into a social
agreement that the word apple stands for a particular fruit; there is no resemblance between
the sound of the word and the appearance or taste of the fruit. However, like all social
agreements, such as those concerning dress or manners, linguistic agreements can be
changed: English speakers could, for example, agree to call an apple a pall. In recent years,
English speakers have agreed to replace quite a number of words which were felt to have
acquired derogatory or negative connotations, such as the replacement of crippled by
handicapped or disabled, or the replacement of manic-depressive by bipolar disorder.

Self-Testing Exercise: Do Exercise 1.1.

6 The Structure of Modern English

The Rule-Governed Nature of Language

Language consists of signs occurring not in a random collection, but in a system. A system
consists of smaller units which stand in relation to each other and perform particular
functions. These smaller units are organized on certain principles, or rules. For this reason,
language is said to be rule-governed. The rules of a language, or its underlying system, are
inferable from the observable patterns of the language. This underlying system constitutes
what is called grammatical competence, which is part of native speakers’ implicit knowledge,
their “internalized grammar”; while grammatical competence is complete and perfect, it
should be remembered that speakers’ actual use of language, what is called performance, may
be quite incomplete and imperfect.1 A helpful analogy that might be made is to the score of
a symphony — which, like competence is perfect and unchanging — and to the orchestra’s
playing of the symphony — which, like linguistic performance, may be inexact or may
contain errors and which changes on each occasion of playing.

The rules of language act as a kind of constraint on what is possible in a language. For
example, in the area of syntax, the rules of English permit I like soap operas or Soap operas I
like, but not *Like soap operas I (* means ungrammatical, not permitted by the rules of the
language). In respect to word formation, overnight is a possible verb expressing a length of
time (as in The climbers overnighted on a rock ledge), but midnight, since it expresses a point
in time, is not a possible verb (as in *The revelers midnighted in the streets). The phonological
rules of English would permit the word prace (though it does not exist), but would not
generate the word *psabr. Furthermore, we know by the morphological rules of the language
that if prace were a verb, the past tense would be praced, pronounced with a final “t” sound
(not the “d” or “ed” sound that is found in other past tense forms), and if prace were a noun,
the plural would be praces, pronounced with a final “ez” sound (not the “s” or “z” sound that
is found in other plural forms).

Language Universals, Innateness, and Creativity

A more general set of constraints on language is known as language universals. These are
features of language which are not language-specific; that is, they would be found in all
languages of the world. Because of the surface diversity of languages, however, the search for
language universals has proceeded slowly. We do know, for example, that, if one considers the
order of the three main sentence elements, the subject (Su), the verb (V), and the object (O),
there are only three basic word orders that occur with any frequency among world languages,
namely, SuVO, SuOV, and VSuO, even though logically three other orders would be possible
(VOSu, OVSu, OSuV). It may turn out to be the case that certain grammatical categories
(such as number), functions (such as subject), and processes (such as passive) are universal.
One consequence of the notion of universals is that language appears to be more motivated
(that is, iconic) than previously assumed.

Inherent in the notion of universals is the belief that human language is innate, that we
are born with an inborn capacity for language acquisition and are genetically equipped to
learn a language (not a specific language, but human language in general). This “genetic
predisposition” to learn a language is thought to account for the speed and ease with which

The Nature of Language and Linguistics 7

children learn their first language during a crucial period of language acquisition (birth to age
four), despite the fact that the linguistic data that they hear is incomplete, that they receive no
negative evidence, and that they are seldom explicitly “taught” or corrected. Of course,
children must be exposed to a language in order to acquire it, so language is in part learned
as well as innate. Universals are clearly a consequence of the genetic endowment of human
beings for language. A current scholarly debate is whether this innate capacity for language is
part of more general cognitive strategies, such as spatial perception, or is contained in a sepa-
rate language faculty, or “module”; the answer is not yet in. (On the usefulness of speakers’
innate knowledge in the teaching of English, see the chapter on pedagogy on the CD-ROM.)

Despite the general and language-specific constraints on the form of language, we also
consider language to be creative, or infinite. The first aspect of creativity is that human beings
can produce and understand novel sentences and sometimes even new words. In fact, it is
likely that no sentence that you have read so far in this text is one that you have encountered
before. The second aspect of creativity is that we can create sentences of (theoretically)
infinite length (as in the nursery rhyme This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat
that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built), although there are obviously practical
limits on length.

Animal Communication Codes

Finally, human language is uniquely human. Language is what distinguishes human beings
from other animals. While many animals have codes of communication, these diVer in
important ways from human language. Most animal language is indexical and “stimulus-
bound”, depending on the necessary presence of concrete stimuli. The topic of conversation
must be present in the immediate environment; it cannot be displaced in time or space.
Animal communication codes may also be iconic and natural, but they are not symbolic.
Furthermore, although the codes may be structurally quite complex, they are finite, not
infinite or creative; there is a closed repertory of utterances. (Although some chimpanzees
have been observed to use American Sign Language creatively, this may have been merely
accidental.) The codes are acquired exclusively through genetic transmission, not learned,
whereas, as we have seen, human language is both innate and learned. Animals always give
primary responses, while human beings often give secondary responses, reacting to how
something is said rather that what is said. Human beings may also use language to refer to
abstractions or nonexistent entities; they can use language to lie, exaggerate, or mislead; and
they can use it metalinguistically. None of these is possible within an animal communication
code.

The Nature of Grammar

As well as having a number of misconceptions about the nature of language, lay people often
have a diVerent definition of the term grammar than linguists do.

8 The Structure of Modern English

Definition of Grammar

It is important at the outset to be clear about the meaning of the ambiguous term grammar.
In linguistics, the term is used to refer to the rules or principles by which a language works,
its system or structure. Speakers of a language all have an internalized grammar (their
competence), whether they can articulate the rules of the language or not. And unless they
have studied their language in a formal context, they probably can’t. Throughout the ages,
grammarians and linguists have been attempting to formulate the speakers’ grammar in a set
of rules, though it is probably fair to say that they have not yet been able to do so completely
for any language. This sense of grammar is known as descriptive grammar. You have
probably been exposed to a diVerent sense of grammar known as prescriptive grammar,
which involves attempts to establish and maintain a standard of correctness in the language,
to “prescribe” (dictate) and “proscribe” (forbid) certain ways of speaking; but this has little
to do with the actual working of the language. It is only in a prescriptive sense that we can talk
about “good” grammar or “bad” grammar; prescriptive grammar involves value judgments
based on factors external to language — such as, social class or level of education (a topic
discussed in more detail in the chapter on pedagogy on the CD-ROM).

The diVerence between descriptive grammar and prescriptive grammar is comparable
to the diVerence between constitutive rules, which determine how something works (such
as the rules for the game of chess), and regulatory rules, which control behavior (such as the
rules of etiquette). If the former are violated, the thing cannot work, but if the latter are
violated, the thing works, but crudely, awkwardly, or rudely. That is, if you move the pawn
three spaces in a single move, you cannot be said to be playing chess, but if you eat oV your
knife, you can eat adequately, but you are being rude or vulgar. Analogously, if you say Cat
the the dog chased you are not speaking English; the sentence is ungrammatical. Hearers might
well have trouble understanding you (Is the dog chasing the cat or the cat chasing the dog?).
However, if you say He did good on the exam, your sentence is grammatical and would be
understood by all, but many people would find your sentence unacceptable; they would
consider it “bad”, “nonstandard”, or “incorrect” English.

On the role of prescriptivism in language teaching, see the chapter on pedagogy on the
CD-ROM.

Fallacies concerning Grammar

There are some fallacies concerning the nature of grammar which are widely believed. One
fallacy is that there are languages that have “no” grammar or “little” grammar. If grammar is
defined as the principles by which a language operates, it must be recognized that every
language has a grammar and that each language’s grammar is completely adequate. It is
certainly true that there are diVerent types of grammars — such as the widely divergent
grammars of Chinese, German, Turkish, or Cree — but these are all equally operative.

A related fallacy is that certain types of grammars are simpler and hence more “primi-
tive” than others, while other grammars (particularly grammars which make use of inflec-
tions, or word endings, to express distinctions) are more complex and hence more advanced.
This view was widely held in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but was dispelled by the

The Nature of Language and Linguistics 9

discovery that supposedly primitive languages (for example the American Indian languages)
had extremely complex grammars and that the earliest form of the Indo-European languages,
which has been reconstructed, probably had a more elaborate inflectional system than
classical languages such as Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. In fact, it is unclear how a concept such
as grammatical “simplicity” would be defined: is it, for example, simpler to add an inflection
to a word or to express the same concept with a separate word, as English often does? That is,
is the dog’s tail or the tail of the dog simpler? It also seems to be the case that if one area of the
grammar of a language is “simple”, other areas are usually more “complex” in compensation.
The number of variant forms of the English verb, for instance, is quite small, usually only four
(e.g., work, works, worked, working). Compared even with another so-called analytic language
(one which has few inflections) such as French, then, the English verb is inflectionally very
simple. But the auxiliary phrase in English balances matters out by being very complex: there
may be as many as four auxiliaries preceding the main verb, and these must occur in a certain
order and form (e.g., English can produce phrases as complex as might have been being
worked). Moreover, if one language makes a grammatical distinction that another language
appears not to, further examination of the second language often reveals that it makes the
same distinction, but in a diVerent way.

Another fallacy about the form of grammars, which was also current in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, was that grammars should be logical and analogical (that is,
regular). So strong was this belief that there were a number of attempts to eliminate suppos-
edly illogical features of English grammar, such as the use of two or more negatives for
emphasis, which was common prior to the eighteenth century, but was then judged by
principles of logic to make a positive. While some of this “language engineering” was
successful, grammars do not naturally follow logical principles. There is some drive towards
regularity in language, as when children make “analogical mistakes”, producing a regular
form such as take/taked for the irregular take/took; the same process operates over time in
languages, as when bo¯c/b¯ec in Old English (similar to goose/geese) is replaced by book/books in
Modern English. However, there are opposing forces — often changes in pronunciation —
which serve to make language irregular, so no perfectly regular language exists.

A fallacy about changes in grammar is that they result in deterioration, or, alternatively,
evolution. Again, it would be diYcult to define what is meant by grammatical “evolution”
or “deterioration”. There is no doubt that languages change over time, sometimes in quite
radical ways, but the changes do not seem to entail an advancement or a loss of any kind; the
status quo is maintained. Furthermore, changes in language are not entirely random, but
often proceed in certain predictable ways (known as drift) and by a number of quite well-
understood mechanisms.

It is often believed that people are taught the grammar of their native language, but in
fact little conscious teaching of grammar occurs in the critical period of language learning,
apart from rather sporadic corrections of wrong forms (as in, “it’s not tooken but taken”).
Children learn the language by hearing instances of it, and, it is now believed, constructing
their own “internalized” grammar.

Three further fallacies concerning grammar which have already been touched on are that
there are completely random diVerences among the languages of the world (the notion of

10 The Structure of Modern English

language universals calls this view into question), that the sentences a person produces
directly reflect his or her grammatical knowledge (the distinction between competence and
performance underlines the incorrectness of this view), and that there is only one sense of the
term grammar (we saw above that we need to recognize both prescriptive and descriptive
grammars as well as the linguist’s as opposed to the speaker’s grammar).

Self-Testing Exercise: Do Exercise 1.2.

Linguistics and the Components of Language

Linguistics is defined as the study of language systems. For the purposes of study, language is
divided into levels, or components. These components are conventional and, to some extent,
arbitrary divisions of linguistic investigation, and although they are interrelated in complex
ways in the system of language, we treat them more or less separately. They constitute the
framework which organizes this textbook.

The first component is phonology (from the Greek word pho¯n¯e meaning ‘sound, voice’),
the study of the speech sounds of a particular language. A subdivision of phonology is
phonetics, the study of the speech sounds of human language in general, either from the
perspective of their production (articulatory phonetics), their perception (auditory phonetics),
or their physical properties (acoustic phonetics). Although speech is a continuum of sound, it
is possible to break it into diVerent types of sounds, known as consonants, vowels, and
semivowels; we will study how these diVerent sounds are articulated, as well as how other
features of sound, including stress and pitch, are superimposed over these sounds. Since the
repertory of human speech sounds is quite large (but not unlimited — there are physical
constraints on the sounds human beings are capable of producing), no language makes use
of all possible speech sounds, but instead selects a limited set. Furthermore, within this
limited set of sounds, certain sounds will be distinctive, that is, make a diVerence in meaning
(such as the “t” sound and “k” sounds in tap and cap), while others will be nondistinctive and
predictable variants (such as the slightly diVerent “t” sounds in stop and top). Phonetics and
phonology are perhaps the most exact areas of linguistic study.

Since the writing system of English does not provide us with a one-to-one correspon-
dence between oral sound and written symbol, we need a tool for representing human sounds
in an regular way when studying phonology; the International Phonetic Alphabet (the IPA)
has been invented for this purpose. In it, each written symbol represents one, and only one,
speech sound, while each speech sound is represented by one, and only one, written symbol.
We will begin by learning this special alphabet.

The second component of language is morphology (from the Greek word morph¯e
‘form’). Morphology is the study of the structure or form of words in a particular language,
and of their classification. While the concept of a word is intuitively clear, it is not easy to
define it objectively (is ice cream one word or two?), and morphology must begin by trying to
formulate such a definition. Morphology then considers principles of word formation in a
language: how sounds combine into meaningful units such as prefixes, suYxes, and roots,

The Nature of Language and Linguistics 11

which of these units are distinctive and which are predictable variants (such as a and an), and
what processes of word formation a language characteristically uses, such as compounding (as
in roadway) or suYxing (as in pavement). Morphology then treats how words can be
grouped into classes, what are traditionally called parts of speech, again seeking some objective
criteria — either of form or of meaning — for sorting the words of a language into categories.
We will study all of these questions in respect to the form of words in English.

The third component of language is syntax (from Greek suntassein ‘to put in order’).
Syntax is the study of the order and arrangement of words into larger units, as well as the
relationships holding between elements in these hierarchical units. It studies the structure and
types of sentences (such as questions or commands), of clauses (such as relative or adverbial
clauses), and of phrases (such as prepositional or verbal phrases). Syntax is an extensive and
complex area of language, and nearly one-third of the textbook is devoted to the study of
English syntax. The two components of morphology and syntax are sometimes classified
together as grammar.

The fourth component of language is semantics (from Greek s¯emainein ‘to signify, show,
signal’). Semantics is the study of how meaning is conveyed, focusing either on meanings
related to the outside world (lexical meaning) or meanings related to the grammar of the
sentence (grammatical meaning). It is perhaps the least clear-cut area of linguistic study. In
studying meaning, we consider both the meaning of individual words (lexical semantics) and
the meaning which results from the interaction of elements in a sentence (sentence semantics).
The latter involves the relationship between syntax and semantics. A further area of study,
which is also treated here, is the meaning relationships holding among parts in an extended
discourse (discourse semantics).

A fifth component of language, not part of the traditional subdivision but added in
recent years, is pragmatics (from Greek pragma ‘deed, aVair’, from prassein ‘to do’).
Pragmatics is the study of the functions of language and its use in context. As was pointed out
above, language, in addition to serving to communicate information, actually has a variety of
functions, including the expression of emotion, the maintenance of social ties, and even the
performance of action (a statement such as I declare you guilty uttered by a judge). Further-
more, in any context, a variety of factors, such as the age, sex, and social class of the interlocu-
tors and their relationships of intimacy and power, influence the form of language used. We
will consider this fairly wide-open field from two diVerent perspectives.

Organization of the Book

This book examines the structure of Modern English starting with the smallest units and
working toward larger units. Thus, we begin with the phonological level (individual sounds),
move to the morphological level (sounds combined into words and meaningful parts of
words), and then to the syntactic level (words combined into phrases, clauses, and sentences).
The relation of sentences within the larger discourse is the subject matter of pragmatics. Since
meaning derives from aspects of phonological structure, from words and clauses, and from
larger textual structures, we consider aspects of the semantic component as it relates to all of

12 The Structure of Modern English

the levels. However, since meaning is most strongly associated with lexical items and syntactic
structures, a section on word semantics follows the morphological section, and a section on
sentence semantics follows the syntax section. This approach may be schematized as in
Figure 1.1.

Phonology

Morphology Semantics
Syntax

Pragmatics

Figure 1.1. Organization of the Text

There are many diVerent ways to study language, or diVerent approaches, which can be
termed schools of linguistics. Each has certain characteristics and certain strengths. In
studying the diVerent linguistic components, we use methods of analysis formulated within
diVerent schools of linguistics. Such an eclectic approach seems desirable because some
theories are better suited to deal with certain areas than others. Traditional grammar (an
approach to the study of language dating from Greek times) underlies much of our treatment,
but our approach to both phonology and morphology will be primarily structuralist (an
approach to the study of language dating from the 1930s to the 1950s), and our approach to
syntax will be overtly generative (an approach to the study of language dating from the late
1950s to the present).

Chapter Summary

Now that you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
1. describe the characteristics of human language;
2. diVerentiate between iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs;
3. distinguish between diVerent senses of the word grammar;
4. describe common fallacies about language and grammar; and
5. define the study of linguistics and its subparts.

Recommended Additional Reading

The topics discussed in this chapter are generally addressed in introductory linguistics
textbooks, such as Fromkin and Rodman (1993, Chapter 1), Finegan (1999, Chapter 1),

The Nature of Language and Linguistics 13

Akmajian et al. (1995, Chapter 1), O’Grady and Dobrovolsky (1996, Chapter 1) or in
treatments of English linguistics, such as Klammer and Schulz (1995, Chapter 1), Delahunty
and Garvey (1994, Chapter 1) and Kaplan (1995, Chapter 1). On the definition of language,
see Crystal (1997).

You may find a dictionary of linguistics, such as Crystal (1996) or Trask (1993), a very
useful reference while reading this textbook. Hurford (1994) is a dictionary/grammar, with
extensive examples from English as well as exercises and answers.

The best modern traditional grammar of English is Quirk et al. (1985), which also exists
in a shorter students’ form (Greenbaum and Quirk 1990). Older traditional grammars of
English based on historical principles are those by Curme (1931, 1935; and a shorter form
1947), Jespersen (1909–49; and a shorter form 1933), and Poutsma (1904–26) — German,
Danish, and Dutch speakers, respectively! Very useful grammars of English that are primarily
traditional in orientation are those intended primarily for teachers of English as a second
language, such as Celce-Murcia and Larson-Freeman (1999) or Larson-Freeman (1997).

A prescriptive (but very intelligent) approach to English usage can be found in Fowler
(1983). For a humorous take-oV on Fowler, see Thurber (1931).

Structural accounts of English include Francis (1958), Fries (1952), and Strang (1968).
Bloomfield (1933) and Sapir (1921) are classic — and very readable — structural accounts of
language in general. More contemporary ‘structural’ accounts are Huddleston (1984; 1988).
References to generative accounts of English may be found in later chapters on phonology
and syntax.

If you would like to read the writings of Ferdinand de Saussure, they can be found in a
modern translation (Saussure 1988). A very readable discussion of the human language
capacity is Pinker (1994).

Notes

1. The distinction between competence and performance corresponds roughly to what Saussure
called langue and parole.



Unit 2
The Speech Sounds of English



Chapter 2

English Consonants and Vowels

Chapter Preview

This chapter begins with a discussion of some of the di¬erences between writing and speech,
what each medium can and cannot express. It then examines the production of human speech
sounds, with a detailed look at the egressive pulmonic system. The criteria for analyzing
consonant sounds are explained. An inventory of the consonant sounds in English and explica-
tion of the method of their phonetic transcription follows. Vowels sounds are next classified,
with a description of what vowel sounds English has and how they are transcribed. The chapter
ends with discussion of the di~culty of distinguishing vowels and consonants by either formal
or functional means.

Commentary

As defined in Chapter 1, phonetics is the study of speech sounds in general. It has three
subdivisions:
– the study of how sounds are made or the mechanics of their production by human

beings (articulatory phonetics);
– the study of how sounds are heard or the mechanics of their perception (auditory

phonetics); and
– the study of the physical properties of the speech waves which constitute speech sound

(acoustic phonetics).

In this chapter, after briefly examining how speech sounds are made, we will turn to
phonology, the study of the speech sounds in a particular language, in our case, the inventory
of sounds constituting the sound system of English, including consonants, vowels, and glides.
Our study of English phonology will continue in the next chapter with a consideration of the
distinctive and nondistinctive sounds in English as well as of sound combinations and syllable
structure in the language.

18 The Structure of Modern English

The Spoken versus the Written Form of Language

The initial step in the study of the sound system of a language is to distinguish between
speech and writing. This is often a diYcult distinction for literate people to make since we
are tempted to consider the written form as equivalent to language. But speech and writing
are, in fact, two quite distinct media of language. Speech is temporally prior, both in the
history of humankind and in the history of the individual. Languages existed for millennia
before writing systems were invented. We learn to speak eVortlessly, but must struggle to learn
to write; many, in fact, do not learn to write yet are fluent speakers of the language. It is salutary
to remember that even in Shakespeare’s day the majority of English speakers were illiterate,
yet verbally proficient enough to understand Shakespeare’s word plays. Some languages have
no written form, but all languages have spoken forms. Moreover, a variety of writing systems
are used to record the languages of the world, some languages have more than one writing
system, and even very closely-related languages may use very diVerent writing systems.

English Spelling

That writing is often an imperfect means of representing speech is perhaps most obvious in
the well-known inadequacies of English spelling. If we compare the actual sounds of English
with the orthography, the graphic symbols or letters used in writing, we find the following
discrepancies:

– one sound can be represented by a variety of letters, as with the vowel sound in meat,
meet, city, key, ceiling, people, niece, evil, and quay;

– one letter can represent a variety of sounds, as with d in damage, educate, picked;
– a letter or letters may represent no sound at all, as in knee, gnat, lamb, receipt, right,

honor, rhyme, psalm, and salmon;
– two or more letters may represent a single sound, as in throne, chain, edge, shore, nation,

itch, inn, school, eat, friend, too, leopard, cause, blood, or lieutenant;
– a letter may simply indicate the quality of a neighboring sound, as in dinner vs. diner

(where a double or single n indicates the quality of the preceding vowel) or dine vs. din
(where the presence or absence of final e indicates the quality of the preceding vowel);
– a single letter may represent two or more sounds, as in box (x = ks); and
– some sounds have no graphic representation, as with the initial sounds in universe and one.

Self-Testing Exercise 2.1: Examining the reasons for the marked incongruity between sound and
spelling in English makes for a fascinating historical study. Read the brief discussion and do the
self-testing exercise on the CD-ROM.

For the study of speech sounds, therefore, orthographic systems are clearly inadequate. We
need a system of recording sounds in which a single written symbol represents one and only
one speech sound and in which a single sound is represented by one and only one written
symbol. For this reason, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was invented in 1888
(and revised in 1989). It is based on the Roman alphabet primarily, with some symbols from

English Consonants and Vowels 19

other writing systems, as well as some invented symbols and diacritics (marks added to
symbols). The recording of the sounds of a language in the IPA is called transcription. Much
of this chapter will be concerned with the transcription of English using the IPA.

The Advantages of Speech and Writing

It is important to keep in mind, however, that each medium of language — speech and writing
— fulfills diVerent functions and has certain advantages. On one hand, the oral medium
expresses certain meaning features that cannot always be recorded in the written medium:

1. emphasis: indicated by syllable stress in speech and very inexactly by underlining in
writing, as in I want thát one, not thís one.

2. sentence type: indicated by intonation (pitch) in speech and very crudely by end
punctuation in writing, as in the diVerence between He said he would help. and He said
he would help? (though often diVerent word orders distinguish diVerent sentence types
such as questions or commands);

3. homographs: words that are spelled the same but pronounced diVerently, for example,
sewer ‘one who sews’/‘a conduit for sewage’ or hót dòg ‘a sausage’/hót dóg ‘an overheated
canine’;

4. paralanguage: tones of voice and vocal qualifiers: indicated by shouting, growling,
whispering, drawling, and so on;

5. variations in pronunciation resulting from dialect or idiolect (an individual’s unique
dialect);

6. kinesics: indicated by body movement, facial expressions, and gestures;
7. performance errors, slips, or hesitations;
8. features of the speech situation, such as the relation of the speaker and the hearer; and
9. intimacy and personal contact.

In reading over the above list, you might have thought of dialogue in novels or plays as an
exception. However, dialogue is always very stylized and conventionalized. For example, tones
of voice, kinesics, contextual features, and many performance errors must be explicitly
described. If dialogue were faithfully to represent the performance errors of real conversation,
it would be nearly incomprehensible; the transcribed conversation would be quite incoherent.
Features of regional or social dialect are also imperfectly represented (as in Ah’m tahrd for a
Southern American pronunciation of I’m tired), frequently by the use of eye dialect, or the
use of unconventional spelling to suggest a nonstandard dialect but actually approximating
actual pronunciation, such as bekuz, nite, wuz, sez.

On the other hand, there are aspects of language which writing expresses but speech cannot:

1. historical changes: older pronunciations preserved in the spelling, such as comb, gnat, or
taught;

2. words: indicated by spaces, sometimes disambiguating ambiguous phonological
sequences such as nitrate/night rate, syntax/sin tax, or homemade/home aid;

3. homophones: words which are pronounced the same but spelled diVerently, such as
bear/bare, meat/meet, or maid/made;

20 The Structure of Modern English

4. related words or aYxes which sound diVerent, such as photograph, photography, photo-
graphic or the past tense aYx -ed in rated, walked, robbed;

5. a greater range of vocabulary, more complex syntax, and greater refinement of style,
resulting in part from the planning permitted by the situation of writing;

6. language free of performance errors (which, in fact, we often are not consciously aware
of in the spoken form);

7. a standard language without dialectal diVerences, allowing easier communication
among diverse groups;

8. permanency: permitting the keeping of historical annals, the recording of laws, and the
writing of other permanent records.

Incidentally, it is because of points (1) and (7) above that the many attempts at spelling
reform in the history of the English language have been unsuccessful. For example, we will see
below that certain modern dialects of English do not pronounce the “r” in words such as part
or par, while others do, although historically all dialects pronounced the “r”. If spelling were
to represent pronunciation more closely, then which dialect’s pronunciation should become
fixed in the orthography?

The Production of Speech Sounds

Keeping in mind the primacy of speech, we will now consider how we make speech sounds.
Speech sounds are produced using, but modifying, the respiratory system. When speaking,
the number of breaths per minute increases, with a shorter inspiration and longer expiration
period. A greater amount of air is expelled, with a gradual decrease in the volume of air and
fairly constant pressure. Importantly for the production of sound, the air is often impeded at
some point or points on its way out.

English and most languages of the world use the egressive pulmonic system, but other
air stream mechanisms are possible. Egressive, as opposed to ingressive, refers to the fact that
sound is produced when air is exiting, not entering, the lungs. Pulmonic refers to the use of
the lungs as the power source. In speaking, air is expelled from the lungs by a downward
movement of the ribs and upward movement of the diaphragm using the intercostal muscles.
The air travels up the bronchial tubes to the trachea, or “wind pipe”, and through the larynx,
or “Adam’s Apple”. The larynx contains a valve which functions in conjunction with the
epiglottis to close oV the trachea while you are eating. This valve has been adapted for the
purposes of speech; it is known as the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two muscles stretching
horizontally across the larynx, attached to cartilage at either end that controls their move-
ment. The vocal cords are relatively open during normal breathing, but closed during eating.
The space between the cords when they are open is known as the glottis. The vocal cords of
men and of women are of diVerent lengths: 1.7 cm for women, 2.3 for men. This, as we will
see later, accounts in part for the diVerent vocal qualities of men and women. Air continues
past the larynx into the pharynx, whose only real function is as a connector and resonator.

The air then moves into the vocal tract (see Figure 2.1), consisting of the oral and nasal
cavities. The oral cavity, that is, the mouth, is a resonator and a generator of speech sounds

English Consonants and Vowels 21

via the articulators, which may be active (moving) or passive (stationary). The active
articulators include the following:

– the tongue, divided into the tip (or apex), and moving backwards, the blade (or lamina),
the front, the back or dorsum, and the root: the tongue modifies the shape of the cavity,
acts as a valve by touching parts of the mouth to stop the flow of air, and is shaped in
various ways to direct the flow of air.

– the lower lip (the combining term is labio-, as in labiodental): the lip may be placed
against the upper teeth, or, together with the upper lip may be closed or opened,
rounded or spread.

The passive articulators include the following:

– the teeth (-dental): both upper and lower.
– the roof of the mouth, which is divided into the alveolar ridge (alveolo-), which is 1 cm

behind the upper teeth, the hard palate (-palatal, as in alveolopalatal), which is the
domed, bony plate, the soft palate, or velum (-velar), which is the muscular flap at the
rear, and the uvula (-uvular), which is the tip of the velum.
– the pharynx, or back of the throat, which is used by some languages (but not English) in
producing speech sounds.

If you run your tongue back along the top of your mouth from your teeth, you should be able
to feel your alveolar ridge and to distinguish your palate from your velum.

alveolar (hard) palate velum
ridge velum (lowered)
(raised)
upper teeth blade
upper lip uvula
tongue front back root
lower lip lower teeth pharynx tongue

apex

larynx

(a) velum raised (b) velum lowered

Figure 2.1. The Vocal Tract with (a) Velum Raised and (b) Velum Lowered

A useful feature of the velum is that it is movable. If it is raised against the back of the pharynx
(called velic closure), then air passes out only through the oral cavity (see Figure 2.1a). This is
known as an oral sound. If it is lowered (called velic opening), then air can pass out through

22 The Structure of Modern English

the other cavity, the nasal cavity, that is the nose (see Figure 2.1b). If air passes out of the nose
exclusively, a nasal sound is produced, but if air passes out of both the nose and the mouth,
a nasalized sound is produced. People who have a “nasal quality” to their voice probably have
incomplete closure of the velum at all times, so that a little air is always able to escape through
the nose. Also, when you have a cold and your velum is swollen, you will have imperfect velic
closure and hence a nasal voice, but you will also not be able to produce exclusively nasal
sounds since your nose is blocked and will substitute oral sounds (e.g., “b” for “m”).

Let us return, for a few minutes, to the larynx and the vocal cords to see how they
function in producing sounds. When the cords are widely separated and fairly taut, no noise
is produced. This is known as an open glottis and produces a voiceless sound (see Figure 2.2a).
However, the vocal cords may also be set in vibration (“phonation”), and this produces a
voiced sound (see Figure 2.2b). They vibrate open and shut as air passes through. Vibration
is begun by initially closing the vocal cords completely, but with the cords fairly relaxed. Air
pressure builds up below the cords and blows then apart. Then the pressure decreases and the
cords close again; these events occur in rapid succession. Women’s vocal cords, being smaller,
vibrate more rapidly, normally 190–250 Hz (times/second), while men’s larger vocal cords
vibrate 100–150 Hz. When the vocal cords are vibrating, you can feel a vibration and hear a
buzzing. To do so, place your fingers on your larynx or cup your hands over your ears and say
sa-za-sa-za. You should sense the vibration of the cords with the z but not the s. A closed
glottis occurs when the vocal cords are brought completely together once and the air stream
is interrupted. This produces a speech sound we will consider later called a glottal stop.1

Whispering involves bringing the vocal cords close together, keeping them fairly taut but
not vibrating them. Air is restricted through a small triangular passage between the arytenoid
cartilages, and this produces a hissing sound (see Figure 2.2c). To produce a breathy voice, the
vocal cords never close completely but are in vibration; hence, there is a murmuring sound.
A creaky voice results from voicing with slow, regular vibration, whereas a harsh voice results
from excessive tension in the vocal cords and irregular vibration. A hoarse voice usually
results from swelling of the vocal cords producing irregular vibration and incomplete closure;
the larger size of the vocal cords may also result in a lower pitched voice.

Two other features of sound are loudness and pitch (or intonation). Loudness is related
to the pressure and volume of air expelled; as these increase, the sound becomes louder. Pitch
is a matter of the quality of the sound, which is a consequence of the frequency of the sound

(a) (b) (c)

Thyroid cartilage Glottis
Vocal cord
Arytenoid cartilage

Figure 2.2. Configurations of the Larynx: (a) Voiceless (Exhalation), (b) Voiced, and (c) Whispered.

English Consonants and Vowels 23

wave emitted. Every person has a natural frequency and range. Men’s voices tend to have a
lower pitch than women’s due to the larger size of their vocal cords, which vibrate more
slowly. Pitch can be modulated by altering the tension on the vocal cords and changing their
length. Pitch decreases when the vocal cords are elongated and tensed and increases when
they are relaxed, hence shorter. Most human voices have a range of about two octaves.

Consonant Sounds

Speech is a phonetic continuum, a continuous, smoothly flowing set of movements, not a set
of discrete and isolated movements. It is convenient, however, to segment the speech chain
in syllables, and to divide these in turn into consonants and vowels. A syllable consists
necessarily of a vowel; optionally, it may begin and/or end with a consonant. A vowel is the
nucleus or acoustic high point of a syllable; it is articulated for a longer time than surrounding
consonants. While vowels tend to continue the airstream, consonants tend to break it. We
begin our study of speech sounds with consonants, since they are somewhat easier to describe.
We will look first — in abstract — at how consonants are articulated before examining in
detail the specific consonants of English.

Classification of Consonants

A consonant is defined as a speech sound which is articulated with some kind of stricture, or
closure, of the air stream.

Consonants are classified according to four features:

1. the state of the glottis: in vibration (voiced) or open (voiceless);
2. the state of the velum: lowered (nasal) or raised (oral);
3. the place of articulation: where the stricture occurs (place of maximum interference) and

what articulators are involved; and
4. the manner of articulation: the amount of stricture, whether it is complete, partial (called

close approximation), or relatively open (open approximation).

The term approximation refers to the two articulators approaching, or “approximating”, one
another.

In describing the place of articulation for consonants, it is traditional to list the active
and then the passive articulator. Consonants involve a rather large number of discrete places
of articulation (see Figure 2.3):

1. bilabial: the lips are brought together (the lower lip is active); the tongue is not involved
but remains in the “rest position” (its position when you say ah for the doctor) — e.g.,
the sound of b in English;

2. labiodental: the lower lip is brought up against the upper front teeth; again the tongue
is in rest position — e.g., the sound of f in English;

3. interdental: the tip of the tongue (or apex) protrudes between the teeth or touches the
back of the upper teeth — e.g., the sound of th in English;

4. dental: the tip of the tongue touches the back of the upper teeth;

24 The Structure of Modern English

5. alveolar: the tip of the tongue makes contact with the alveolar ridge — e.g., the sound of
d in English;

6. alveolopalatal: the front, or blade, of the tongue is raised to an area between the alveolar
ridge and the palate — e.g., the sound of sh in English;

7. palatal: the front of the tongue is brought up against the palate — e.g., the sound of y in
English;

8. velar: the back, or dorsum, of the tongue is brought into contact with the velum — e.g.,
the sound of g in English;

9. uvular: the back of the tongue touches the uvula;
10. pharyngeal: the root of the tongue (specifically, the epiglottis) is moved backwards

against the wall of the pharynx; and
11. glottal: the vocal cords, functioning as articulators, make a brief closure.

While the dental, uvular, and pharyngeal places are not used for the articulation of English
consonants, they are used in other languages: e.g., the dental place of articulation is used for
Spanish “t”, the uvular for German “r” and a French fricative, and the pharyngeal for a
fricative in Arabic.

Two places of articulation may also be used at the same time — what is called coarticul-
ation — as in the case of labiovelars, which involve the lips, on one hand, and the tongue and
velum, on the other.

Each of the various places of articulation just examined may combine with a number of
diVerent manners of articulation to produce consonant sounds:

1. stop: (oral stop) involving complete closure of two articulators with the velum raised
(velic closure) — e.g., the sound of p in English;

2. nasal: (nasal stop) involving complete closure of two articulators with the velum lowered
(velic opening) — e.g., the sound of n in English; for every stop position in English, there
is a nasal articulated in the same position (homorganic);

3. fricative: (or spirant) involving close approximation of two articulators; the air stream is
partially obstructed so that a turbulent airflow is produced, resulting in a hissing or
rubbing sound — e.g., the sound of s in English;

4. aVricate: consisting of a stop released slowly into a homorganic fricative — e.g., the
sound of ch in English; this sound is analyzed either as a complex or a simple sound;

5. trill: (or roll) involving complete closure alternating intermittently with open approxi-
mation, that is, a rapid vibration of the active articulator against the passive articulator
(this sound in not common in English except for the Scottish “r” made with an apical trill);

6. flap: (or tap) involving momentary complete closure in which the active articulator
strikes the passive articulator only once; it is one strike of a trill and similar to a stop
except that the tongue is more tense and controlled than in a stop; and

7. approximant: one articulator approaches another but generally not to the extent that a
turbulent air stream is produced; there is usually open approximation in the three
diVerent types of approximants:

English Consonants and Vowels 25

7

8 6 54 1
9 32

10 1. bilabial
2. labiodental
3. interdental
4. dental
5. alveolar
6. alveolopalatal
7. palatal
8. velar
9. uvular
10. pharyngeal

Figure 2.3. Some Places of Articulation

a. lateral: involving complete closure of the central portion of the vocal tract, with
the lateral passage of air; the air may pass around the sides with no stricture (open
approximation) — e.g., the sound of l in English — or, in languages other than
English, with some stricture (close approximation)

b. retroflex: involving the underside of the tongue curling back behind the alveolar
ridge towards the palate — e.g., the sound of r in English; laterals and retroflexes
are called liquids;

c. glide (or semivowel): involving a glide to or from a vowel; this sound is articulat-
ed like a vowel (with no stricture) but functions as a consonant to begin or end
syllables — e.g., the sound of w in English.

Consonants of English and their Phonetic Notation

We will now consider what combinations of voicing, place of articulation, and manner of
articulation are utilized in the articulation of consonants in English. Remember that not all
possible combinations are used in all languages, though certain combinations (such as
interdental stop, perhaps, or a velar trill) might be physiologically impossible.

As you read the following section, you should consult the consonant chart in Table 2.1.
On the consonant chart, following common practice, the places of articulation are listed
across the horizontal axis (roughly corresponding to a cross-section of the mouth viewed
from the left, with the front of the mouth on the left and the back of the mouth on the right);

26 The Structure of Modern English

the manners of articulation are listed along the vertical axis, moving in a rough way from
greatest stricture at the top to lesser amounts of stricture as one moves down. Voiceless
consonant are listed above voiced ones, where applicable. It is not necessary to specify the
state of the velum since all consonants are oral except the nasals. Note that in giving a
technical description of a consonant sound, it is traditional to list voicing, then place, then
manner; get into the habit of describing the consonants in this order from the very beginning.

CAUTION: In learning the sounds of English and, especially, in transcribing English
words, you must not allow yourself to be influenced by the written form. Because of the
imperfect correspondence between sound and spelling in English mentioned above, the
spelling will often lead you astray or confuse you. You must try to function entirely in an oral
context. You must also try to say words with a natural and relaxed pronunciation. There is a
strong tendency when reading words or saying them in isolation to give them an overly
formal and even distorted pronunciation. Try to speak as you do naturally in casual conversa-
tion. Do not whisper the words, either, as you cannot distinguish between voiced and
voiceless sounds when whispering.

This section, in addition to surveying the consonant inventory of English, will teach you
the phonetic alphabet symbol used to transcribe each of the consonants. We will use the
modified version of the IPA used in North America. For the most part, you will be asked to
give what is called broad transcription rather than narrow transcription. As the names imply,
broad transcription merely records the grosser features of sound, whereas narrow transcrip-
tion records all the nuances and finer aspects of sound, though not performance factors such
as drunken slurs, loudness, and so on. Although it is common to enclose broad transcription
between slashes, such as /kæt/ for cat, and to use square brackets for narrow transcription,
such as [khætÐ], we will generally use the square brackets exclusively.

In the stop series of English, there are paired voiced and voiceless stops produced in
three locations:

1. the voiced bilabial stop [b] (as in band, ember, mob) and the voiceless bilabial stop [p] (as
in pound, open, coop);

2. the voiced alveolar stop [d] (as in danger, eddy, loud) and the voiceless alveolar stop [t]
(as in tangle, otter, moat); and

3. the voiced velar stop [g] (as in grass, rugged, rug) and the voiceless velar stop [k] (as in
carrot, election, luck).

As you can see, all of these stop sounds are represented in the IPA with Roman alphabet
symbols. The bilabial stop is made by bringing the lips together, the alveolar by bringing the
tip of the tongue up against the alveolar ridge, and the velar by bringing the back of the
tongue up against the soft palate. Because the air stream is completely blocked, you cannot
actually hear stops until you open your mouth to release them into a vowel. Released stops are
called plosives. Furthermore, the articulation of stops cannot be maintained; their articulation
is instantaneous. Practice saying all of these sounds.

The stops share certain features. First, the voiced stops are articulated for a shorter period
than the corresponding voiceless stops. Compare the final stops in the left-hand column with
those in the right-hand column:

Table 2.1. The Consonants of English

Place of Articulation

Manner of Articulation Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveolo-palatal Palatal Velar Glottal
y (= j) k ‘
Stop voiceless p t :
voiced b d ] h

Nasal m n w h

Flap n

Fricative voiceless f θ s š (= w)
AVricate voiced v ð z ž (= Š)

voiceless cˇ (= tw)
voiced ˇJ (= dŠ)

Approximant lateral l English Consonants and Vowels 27
retroflex r (= p)
glide or semivowel
w

The symbols in parentheses represent the IPA symbols in cases where they differ from the symbols used in this book.